Milky white over the deep blue Norwegian Sea, a thick cloud of smoke drifts north along the coast of Norway in this photo-like image, taken on May 7, 2006, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The smoke is coming from hundreds of fires burning in western Russia, most of which are probably agricultural fires. By the time this image was taken, smoke had lingered over the Norwegian Sea for more than a week as the fires continued to burn. In this image, hazy skies extend from Denmark, lower right, west to Iceland, upper left. The densest of the smoke hangs over the Shetland Islands (right) and the Faroe Islands (left). The northern shores of Great Britain are in the lower left corner of the image.

The large image provided above has a resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides the image in additional resolutions.